A French lesson: Grand Tetons (27 June)

Today was a leisurely day of short travel from Yellowstone through pleasant countryside to Grand Tetons National Park. We saw quite a few deer and elk. The forests of mainly spruce and pines now included a few decisuous trees whereas the Yellowstone forests comprised almost entirely conifers, mostly spruce.

A ranger told us that the area’s first Euopean settlers were trappers, mostly hunters. One trapper named the area Grand Tetons after a particular shape in the ranges. The photo below has three prominent peaks which are said to resemble breasts. The ranger said that the French word teton means breast. The three peaks made the traper think of breasts with the right one being the biggest, or the grand. One might assume that a trapper’s life was lonely.  Over time the collection of three peaks and their range acquired the name Grand Tetons.  

The name Jackson Hole is also intriguing. Trappers developed tended to not interfere with other trappers’ areas or holes. A trapper named Jackson had a hole that ran from the southern border of what is now known as Yellowstone Park through for about 120 km and from the Grand Tetons some distance to the east. When other settlers arrived the town they established became known as Jackson’s Hole. In time the possessive was dropped and the name became Jackson Hole and is now shortened further to Jackson.

A ferry across the Snake River used an ingenious design, a reaction design, to use the fast flow of the water to propel the ferry either way. Bill Menor, the owner of the ferry, was smart enough to build a general store where the ferry docked.  That log cabin style store is still standing, selling modern sweets, drinks and gifts but providing an historical narrative for free. The township is now called Menor’s Ferry.